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Hydrogen is a clean fuel, producing only water vapor when it burns. But generating hydrogen in large quantities and in a "green" fashion is not straightforward. Biological photosynthesis includes an efficient reaction step that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of catalysts that have been used as models for synthetic catalysts. Working at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, a team of scientists has determined the structure of one such catalyst, a complex cobalt oxide.

A University of Houston researcher has developed a nanoparticle coating for solar panels that makes it easier to keep the panels clean, which helps maintain their efficiency and reduces the maintenance and operations costs. The coating has successfully undergone testing at the Dublin Institute for Technology and will undergo field trials being conducted by an engineering firm in North Carolina.

Engineers at Oregon State University have made a breakthrough in the performance of microbial fuel cells that can produce electricity directly from wastewater, opening the door to a future in which waste treatment plants not only will power themselves, but will sell excess electricity.

At
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, several pilot plants of
solar cells, small wind power plants, lithium-ion batteries, and power
electronics are under construction to demonstrate how load peaks in the
grid can be balanced and what regenerative power supply by an isolated
network may look like in the future.

SPI Solar announced that it has completed construction and successfully interconnected two large-scale solar energy facility (SEF) projects in Greece. A 2-MW development in Evros and a 4.4-MW SEF in Orestiada were completed and interconnected by July 26th.

The
Barnett Shale is a geological formation in North Texas bearing a large
amount of natural gas that was difficult to recover prior to recent
technological advances such as hydraulic fracturing. A geophysicist at
the University of Texas at Austin analyzed seismic data over a two-year
period and has found that while proving any one earthquake was caused by
drilling is impossible, a connection between earthquake frequency and
fracking does exist.

A
new study of renewable energy’s technical potential finds that every
state in the nation has the space and resource to generate clean energy.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory produced the study, which
looks at available renewable resources in each state and establishes an
upper-boundary estimate of development potential.

Current
techniques for post-combustion carbon capture filter out carbon dioxide
from a power plant’s flue gases as they travel up a chimney. These
methods can prevent 80 to 90% of a power plant’s carbon emissions from
entering the atmosphere, but researchers in the U.K. are trying to
improve on that, using their nation’s synchrotron to determine the
mechanism for the use of calcium oxide-based material as carbon dioxide
sorbents.

The
economics of offshore windpower are different from land-based turbines,
due to installation and operational challenges. Vertical axis wind
turbines could offer the best solution thanks to several factors,
including a lower center of gravity and a bottom-mounted drivetrain. But
Sandia National Laboratories engineers are looking how to scale up
product of the turbines’ curved blades, which are difficult to
manufacture.

A
recent episode of the Global Challenges series of podcasts from the
American Chemical Society highlights work being done by a professor from
Yale University and a colleague to adapt a little-known process called
pressure-retarded osmosis to create electricity from the difference in
saltiness between freshwater and seawater.

A new versatile measurement system devised by researchers at
NIST accurately and quickly measures the electric power output of solar
energy
devices, capabilities useful to researchers and manufacturers working to
develop and make next-generation solar energy cells.

Most methane comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel. Stanford University and Penn State University scientists are taking a greener approach using microbes that can convert renewable electricity into carbon-neutral methane.

With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly developed adsorbent materials.

The U.S.
Department of Energy has awarded a five-year, $12.1 million grant to a
multi-institutional
effort to develop drought-resistant grasses for use in biofuels. The
Donald
Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis will lead the initiative with
researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Minnesota, and
Washington State
University.

Shale
gas drilling has attracted national attention because advances in
technology have unlocked billions of dollars of gas reserves, leading to
a boom in production, jobs, and profits, as well as concerns about
pollution and public health. In the debate over natural gas drilling,
the companies are often the ones accused of twisting the facts. But
scientists say opponents sometimes mislead the public, too.

Using high-power X-ray imaging of an actual working battery, a Stanford University-SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory team discovered that sulfur particles in the cathode largely remain intact during discharge. Their results could help scientists find new way to develop commercially viable lithium-sulfur batteries for electric vehicles.

Researchers at Rice University and Lockheed Martin reported
this month that they've found a way to make multiple high-performance
anodes from a single silicon wafer. The process
uses simple silicon to replace graphite as an element in rechargeable
lithium-ion batteries, laying the groundwork for
longer-lasting, more powerful batteries for such applications as
commercial
electronics and electric vehicles.

Policy makers need to be cautious in setting new 'low-carbon' standards for greenhouse gas emissions for oil sands-derived fuels as well as fuels from conventional crude oils University of Calgary and University of Toronto researchers say. The researchers, using for the first time confidential data from actual oil sands operations, did a 'well-to-wheel' lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels produced by Alberta oil sands operations compared with conventional crude oils.

University of Utah physicists invented a new "spintronic" organic light-emitting diode (OLED) that promises to be brighter, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than the kinds of LEDs. The prototype OLED produces an orange color, and the team expects it will be possible within two years to use the technology to produce red and blue as well.

A new biofuel production process created by Michigan State University researchers produces energy more than 20 times higher than existing methods. The results showcase a novel way to use microbes to produce biofuel and hydrogen, all while consuming agricultural wastes.

A first-of-its-kind self-evaluation model and survey will provide utilities with a way to benchmark and measure their cybersecurity readiness. Announced by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Electricity Sector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model, or ES-C2M2, and evaluation survey will help utilities assess their own level of cybersecurity.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be painted on virtually any surface. The rechargeable battery created in the laboratory of Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan consists of spray-painted layers, each representing the components in a traditional battery.

Future automotive batteries could cost less and pack more power because of a new manufacturing research and development facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The $3 million Department of Energy facility allows for collaboration with industry and other national labs while protecting intellectual property of industrial partners.